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Don’t Count Calories

Contestants on the television program The Biggest Loser dropped an average of 129 pounds, yet six years later, most have regained more than 70 percent of their lost weight, largely because dieting decreased their ability to burn calories. They now burn about 500 fewer calories each day than would be expected for a person of the same age and weight (Obesity, published online May 2, 2016).

We have known for many years that the commercial weight loss programs do not work. The $2.5 billion weight loss industry has a terrible one-year-weight-loss record and of the clients who have lost weight at one year, almost all have regained their lost weight three years later (Annals of Internal Medicine. April 2015;162(7):501-512).

In spite of all this discouraging news, I know that it IS possible to lose weight and keep it off. For at least thirty years, I have been telling my patients not to count calories or to eat so little food that they feel hungry all the time. Instead, I tell them to switch to eating lots of the foods from plants that fill you up so you do not ever need to feel hungry. If you do this, your body never turns down your metabolism in its effort to protect you from starving to death. Those of you who listened to my radio show or have read my books know that my mantra has always been “fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans” – and nuts and other seeds. Eating mostly these foods will cause you to lose weight without lowering your metabolism.

Anti-Inflammatory Foods: Right now the hottest topic in health research is inflammation. When your immunity stays overactive it attacks your own cells to cause diseases and shorten lives. Foods are now classified into harmful pro-inflammatory and healthful anti-inflammatory categories. Basically, this research tells us that you should eat lots of fruits, vegetables and seeds (nuts, beans, whole grains) and try to severely restrict sugar-added foods and drinks, red and processed meats, and fried foods.

Beneficial Gut Bacteria: Fortunately, the anti-inflammatory foods are the ones that encourage the healthful types of bacteria to colonize in your gut. We do not yet fully understand how gut bacteria affect body weight and weight loss, but scientists agree that a high-plant diet fosters growth of the beneficial bacteria.

Intermittent Fasting: Any of the variations of intermittent fasting can significantly reduce your total intake of food without lowering your metabolism. You do not need to fast for long periods, which would be very difficult. Instead, you skip some of your regular meals on some days and snack on small amounts of healthful foods. For example, you can stop eating meals from 5 p.m. to the next morning, or skip meals for a certain number of days each week or month. When you “fast,” you can snack on small amounts of anti-inflammatory foods such as nuts, vegetables or fruits. A few days each week, I eat oatmeal for breakfast and then snack on small amounts of nuts, fruits and vegetables throughout the day. Since we have no more will power than anyone else, we keep nothing else in the house.

Practical Weight Management through Cycling and Good Nutrition

In Pedal Off the Pounds, USA Cycling Level 1 Coach David Ertl eschews diet book gimmickry for the hard truth, detailed nutritional and dietary knowledge, and a proven approach to weight loss for cyclists – whether weight loss alone is your goal, or whether losing weight and simultaneously training to improve cycling performance is your goal.

Losing weight through exercise alone, without changing your diet, is difficult and time-consuming, he points out in the prologue. Losing weight by changing your diet, without increasing your exercise, is equally difficult. But when you combine a reduced-calorie diet with increased energy expenditure, weight loss becomes manageable and noticeable. And cycling is the ideal calorie-burning activity, he says.

Coach Ertl has laid out the 34-page eBook in a simple and practical order:

Chapter 1, What To Eat: Basics of Nutrition for Healthy Weight Loss and Cycling, includes a discussion of what you should be eating to assist with weight loss and weight management, being healthy and having energy for cycling and life. It is packed with bedrock nutrition information about the building block elements of our diet, fully explains the key terms and concepts (carbohydrates, Glycemic Index, glycogen, protein, fats and oils) and the roles they play in our diet. It tells you what types of foods to avoid, and which to eat for healthy weight loss.

Chapter 2, When and How Much To Eat: How to use Hunger to your Advantage, talks about how much and when you should eat. It provides some tips about eating enough to provide the energy you need for your daily activities and for your cycling, yet still allowing you to shed some pounds at the same time. It discusses hunger, something many books on weight loss tend to avoid. But Coach Ertl tackles it head-on and discusses how you can use your appetite to your advantage.

Chapter 3, Eatingfor Weight Loss and Cycling Performance, discusses when to be eating which foods in order to balance the need for energy for cycling with the desire to lose weight. This can be tricky but you will get some guidelines to help weave your way through these seemingly contradictory objectives. It discusses the number of calories you can burn while cycling, the role of duration and intensity, and whether to ride in the fat-burning zone.

Chapter 4, Example Training and Eating Plans to Maximize Weight Loss and Performance, contains sample weekly diet programscombined with cycling training programs to help you visualize how to put the two together to maximize your success at weight loss. One sample program focuses on weight loss only as the primary goal, while the other focuses on weight loss while training to improve cycling performance – clearly demonstrating the different needs and approaches for each.

Note: this is an eBook. Your purchase will be stored as a PDF file in your customer account on the website for downloading and printing. This title also available in a Kindle edition.

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Exercise for Weight Loss

Most people are not capable of exercising long enough or hard enough to lose weight with exercise alone (no diet changes) because exercise does not increase 24-hour fat oxidation (Exerc Sport Sci Rev, April 2009; 37(2): 93–101). However, people who want to lose excess weight should exercise in addition to changing their eating patterns and choice of foods. Storing fat in the belly markedly increases your risk for diabetes and heart attacks, and exercise specifically reduces abdominal fat and improves health, even without weight loss (PLOS One, January 25, 2016).

Because high blood sugar levels damage every cell in your body to shorten life and cause disease, a major benefit of exercise comes from the fact that contracting muscles draw very large amounts of sugar from the bloodstream and don’t even require insulin to do so. (Resting muscles draw almost no sugar from the bloodstream and when they do, they require insulin). However, this benefit from exercise lasts no longer than 17 hours, so you need to exercise every day.

My Recommendations

I hope that you will ignore the “weight loss is hopeless” message in all of the news reports about The Biggest Loser. You CAN lose weight and keep it off, but you need to make permanent lifestyle changes. Temporary diets never work. To lose weight and then maintain your healthful weight for the rest of your life:

eat a diet based primarily on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and other seeds

restrict sugar-added foods and drinks, processed foods and all sources of refined carbohydrates

use short periods when you skip meals and just snack

exercise every day

Gabe Mirkin, M.D., is a sports medicine doctor and fitness guru. A practicing physician for more than 50 years and a radio talk show host for 25 years, Dr. Mirkin has run more than 40 marathons and is now a serious tandem bike rider with his wife, Diana. His website is http://drmirkin.com/. Click to read Gabe’s full bio.